Policemen stand guard at the entrance of a security perimeter set near Maalbeek metro station, on March 22, 2016 in Brussels, after a blast at this station near the EU institutions caused deaths and injuries. | Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images

Brexit campaigners use Brussels attacks to criticize EU

Brexit supporters used Tuesday’s terror attacks in the Belgian capital to make the case for the U.K. leaving the EU.

“This horrific act of terrorism shows that Schengen free movement and lax border controls are a threat to our security,” United Kingdom Independence Party defense spokesman Mike Hookem, a member of the European Parliament, said.

Britain is not a member of the passport-free Schengen zone, so there are border controls between the U.K. and the Continent.

Hookem said reports of jihadists returning from Syria to Europe, and in particular to Brussels’ Molenbeek neighborhood “should alert people to the fact that open borders are putting the lives of European citizens at risk.”

As reports emerged of an attack at Brussels airport, Allison Pearson, a columnist for the Telegraph, tweeted: “Brussels, de facto capital of the EU, is also the jihadist capital of Europe. And the Remainers dare to say we’re safer in the EU! #Brexit”

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Ehm

At least today, british trolls should shut up

Posted on 3/22/16 | 1:20 PM CET

axel

Did the peoples from the European continent vote the UK out of the EU after 7/7? What would you have felt if they asked for such a referendum? The UK has its border police fully deployed, has never been any different.

Posted on 3/22/16 | 1:57 PM CET

Iwantout

Any right thinking person can only condemn unequivocally the attack on Belgium today as well as those on France in 2015. But the point being made is not unreasonable. Who would want to bet against the proposition that the ease with which people can move around the Schengen area and through EU borders without a realistic likelihood of being stopped made the planning and logistics of such outrages much easier?

The UK has its border security,exceptionally strict firearms controls and years of anti-terror experience dating back to the “Northern Ireland Troubles” and beyond, as such we are perhaps more prepared than some yet we are still threatened. But the fact is membership of the EU has absolutely no beneficial impact on our security, information exchange etc. does not depend on being a member of the EU.